The invention herein is directed to an implantable demand medication delivery assembly. In particular, the assembly is designed to be implanted in a patient who requires repeated injections of a particular medication or who requires delivery of a chemotherapeutic agent to a particular location within the patient. The assembly herein can be implanted in a patient and thereby maintain the patient in an ambulatory state without the need for the patient to return to a clinic or hospital environment for treatments and the administration of medication.
There are many patients that have the need for the delivery of a specific dose of medication at various times. For example, many cancer patients, such as those having terminal lower torso cancer, can have symptoms of chronic pain sufficient to render the patient immobile. One routine regimen for treating such patients is the routine injection of morphine into the lumbar region of the patient either epidurally or intrathecally. Such morphine injections have been shown to relieve the symptoms of pain, and in many instances, without adversely affecting the patient's mobility or other routine and normal functions.
Another chronic ailment which requires routine injections is diabetes. Diabetics require frequent dosages of insulin in the treatment of the chronic condition.
It would be desirable to provide an implantable assembly which can deliver a periodic bolus of medication to a specific anatomical area as required by the patient. It would be desirable to have such an assembly that can be operated by the patient. Such an assembly could be used to deliver morphine to the epidural or intrathecal space for pain relief, to deliver chemotherapeutic agents into a feeding artery for cancer treatment, to deliver insulin for diabetics, and to deliver hormone agents for the treatment of sterility and the like.